[encantotom]

it ends up we would not have gotten done before the holidays anyway. i fixed a water pump problem and when there was enough pressure on the system,, other leaks sprung up behind the water panel in the water bay. in tearing it apart, it is obvious it had been tried to be fixed before. will have to order some fittings and re plumb some of it in pex and sharkbites.

also, he has a keyless door entry problem that i have troubleshot to a bad keypad. got to talk to the designer of the essex keypad and now i understand how it is wired and what has not been working. so have to order that as well.

we will see how fast we can do the slide seal after the first of the year. maybe some of the gurus that are in town can come and help then.

later

tom

[cknuth]

Tom, I'll be happy to help when I get back in the area. Currently predicting January 14.
Chuck

[smagown]

These are part numbers and sources for the gray fittings on our water manifolds that go from NPT to  pex fittings.

I sent Morgan in parts at Newell this info after they couldn't source them anymore

Here is the source for the Zurn Quicktite pex fittings part number QFNCR4 (1” NPT x 3/4 pex, the gray fittings on our water manifolds and pex in the water bay.

The half inch fitting is QFNCR3 (3/4” NPT x 1/2’ pex.

Johnson and White Sales - Angela

913-390-9808

Olathe , KS

Years ago Claude at Newell told me about these cone washers

that will stop leaks in the gray colored fittings mentioned above.

Flair It Santoprene swivel washers FO 6435 1/2 “,  FO 6465 3/4”

RV Upgrade  866-332-7881

[austinswalk]

Tom, 
Have enjoyed following all this hard work you guys have been doing. Great information and insight, Amy and i are new owners of 707 and former owners of 272. I have a lot to learn and have been following all the Blogs here for years and they are truly very educational. Our coach is handicap accessible with a Braun lift under the front door for my wife and other things to make her life easier. Amy by the way has been in a chair 24 years and it has not slowed her down at all! Currently plays para badminton for team usa and normally we are in mesa arizona, cathedral city ca and Manhattan beach ca in the winter for her to train but this year with all the crazy covid going on she opted to stay here in Nashville and take care of some body maintenance (surgery’s) hopefully we will be back on the road in February to somewhere. In the meantime i have had the coach at Newell taking care of my punch list (ouch lol) great people and service,  now to get all our stuff back int the coach. Look forward to meeting you and your wife sometime in the future and possibly being your apprentice. Thanks again for all the post and hard work you do helping everyone out its not something one sees that much anymore

[ccjohnson]

Tom,
Give me a call a day or so before and I may be able to run over to help out for a day.
CCJ

[encantotom]

Looks like we are doing slide day round 2 on Tuesday jan 5th

Tom

[encantotom]

we will also be doing the rivet fix on tonys coach. his aluminum skin has shifted about a 1/4 inch.

tom

[encantotom]

tony drove off yesterday.  got everything done.  bob (winegrower) from tucson came and spent 3 days with us too.  both of them stayed in our two guest rooms in the house.  like a adult sleepover.  darlene kept us fed well.  

we got the slide seal back in place.  this time we used sika 221 as the adhesive.  it is black so it makes your hands stained....ask tony.  a real version of "skin in the game"

once again we needed to use ratchet straps in the bays to get the slide back in.  so...slide seal all done.  

i had ordered for tony 2 of the f350 vacuum pumps we use to suck the slide seals down.   i installed and tested them both.  for both slides.  

he had pretty bad side skin shifting between the two slides.  it had caused some bending at the bedroom slide side.  

so on monday before the gang got here on tuesday i got my floor jack out and i lifted the coach up just below the back of the front slide on the frame crossmember and got the skin in alignment.  all rivets had sheared between the two slides.   i put the original size rivets in the existing holes.  then went back and drilled new holes (using a drill stop collet) for the larger steel mandrel rivets newell recommends in between the existing rivets. i added 2 in between each previous set of rivets.  it aligned up nicely.  as those that have done it knows, you need to get an air rivet gun to do those bigger steel rivets.  or have hands the size of godzilla.  i bought the 40 dollar harborfreight one and it worked just fine.  very easy to use.  

his essex remote keypad at the door had failed and would no longer work.  i traced the 5 wires that are used coming out of it, put my meter on them and for sure both lock and unlock signals were not coming out of the pad.  ordered the newer version of the essex that fits in the exact same mounting holes and replaced it.  lets just say easier said than done.  but it works fine and now they can lock and unlock the bode air door.  i programmed it with a new master code and user codes for him.  his door lock switch on the inside had a loose connection that i fixed as well.  

the water leaks on the manifold.   i got the brass 90's and borrowed a plumber friends pex crimper and put pex on them.  then used sharkbite fittings to plumb them into the coach.  then they leaked at the new brass fitting.  ended up the brass threaded part was longer and wouldnt seal, so we cut off about 3 /16 off the brass part and cleaned it up and it worked like a champ.  it is hard getting behind those water manifolds unless you have hands the size of gi joe doll.  ha

his auto water fill was also plugged so we cleaned that up.  

i replaced the extend front slide solenoid as well, that is what caused all this in the first place as it caused slide creep outward.  

it was fun having tony and bob here this week.  

later

tom

[encantotom]

a few finishing comments.

doing tonys slide took a week. i did the same type slide seal total replacement on mine in a day and half. same slide mechanism. why so long on tonys?

the interior trim was very similar on his. only added thing is that he has electric blinds. those controls are on the end panel behind the driver. that only added a few minutes.

what was the main thin was that once we got the slide removed, (it was much harder to push out and later push back in) was that we spent a couple of days struggling to get the seal popped back into the track on the bottom. it ended up that the track was crushed and wouldnt allow the seal to snap in. the reason we discovered was that the hdpe teflon slide block had somehow come out directly above where the track was crushed. (the track is a hard rubber/plastic that is glued in). we had two choices. choice number one was to order some new track from newell, cut the track out and glue in the new track. there was about 12-18" that needed replacing. choice number 2 was to cut one side of the track out so the seal would lay flat in that short section and use lots of glue and glue it in. choice number two is what tony decided he wanted to do. i think it worked very well. time will tell i guess.

then we re installed the white plastic slide block. for those that have not seen this type of plastic it is used on the bottom of the bed where it slides on the carpet. on my coach they used small blocks of it to mount the bay door remote locks to as well. it is slick and tough. i have a 1/2" of the same type of plastic only black as the skid plates on my rzr.

what makes every coach different is the bays and access underneath. tonys has roof airs and has very different bay access then mine.

the first time we did the seal, i had not done the rivet fix so it caused us some grief by having the trim on the end towards the back of the coach catching on the aluminum skin that had shifted. when we redid the seal the second time, i had already done the rivet fix making that part much easier.

the second time we did the seal it took a day and a half. and i was working on other things while tony and bob worked getting the seal glued in.

the other thing that makes this vintage of coach harder than earlier hwh slide mechanisms is how the 2 hydraulic rams are attached to the slide. somewhere in the early 2000's, newell started having the two rams attach by screwing into the slide in a nut (the end of the ram is threaded). but....it is under the floor and very hard to get at. we ended up buying 90 degree angled 5/8 wrenches to help. then getting the slide back in involved holding the ram up with a cord, pushing the slide in till the rams were touching the nuts welded in the slide and getting them both started without crossthreading them.

the earlier hwh slide mechanisms used a different ram connection setup. you take the bay directly behind the entry door ceiling out and the ram is right there in plain site. the second ram is behind a plate that is in the roof of the passenger side front tire wheelwell.

just take the nut off and you have it disconnected. much easier.

since each newell has different trims on the slide, each one is a treasure hunt on how to get those trims pieces off. i am convinced after tearing my coach all apart on the inside, that the newell engineers that designed those ways of connecting trim were also jigsaw puzzle designers.

the good new is that with tony, he was in no rush, i was in no rush to get his coach out of my shop so we took the time it needed to get everything done. i kept telling tony that we had no rush, no pressure and to just take our time and do it right. the other thing is that i enjoy doing this and part of the experience is hanging out with incredible people like tony, bob and glen. we laugh alot and have a great time. even went out at sunset to watch the sun set in the desert sky in the rzr.

i know with all the problems he was glad the 150 dollar and hour labor rate clock wasnt running. ha

we didnt kill ourselves working on it either. we knocked off late afternoon and didnt start until 9 most mornings. and took breaks whenever we felt like it. i have a lazy boy that moves around the shop that we kept by where we were working.

i know soon there is another guru that has a 97 that wants to do a front slide seal and do a replacement of it. then i will get to do one that is the older type of connections.

later

tom